Buckeye Arizona

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The drive from Catalina State Park to our next stop at Leaf Verde RV Park was an easy one. As nearly every drive we have had for the past few months, we head back to Interstate 10 and proceed west. It was only 140 mile drive and the traffic going through the Phoenix area was not bad at all. The park is far enough off I-10 so traffic noise isn't too big of an issue. The town of Buckeye is about 30 miles west of Phoenix. It is big enough to have decent grocery stores and other shopping.

The closest hiking area is not very far from camp - maybe 5 miles north. So while not as convenient as the hikes at Catalina State Park, it wasn't bad. Skyline Park is fairly new. In fact our maps didn't show it as being a park, nor were any roads listed as getting to it. But trust us, Watson Road north of I-10 extends straight into the park and the several parking areas. They were having a 1st anniversary party the weekend we are in town.

There are many miles of trails and they are all very well marked. At each intersection there is a map showing where you are, which trail goes which way and how far it is to the next trail. With that in mind, one might think we would be able to figure out a reasonable hike for our first one. But no, we ended up spending nearly 4.5 hours hiking 8 miles of hills while picking up 1500 feet in elevation climbed. The good news was that we did pretty well finding the geocaches hidden along many of the trails.

Mountain Views at Skyline Park

Trail Up to Overlook

At one point while sitting and signing in at a cache, we took a break to eat a snack and across the ravine, I spotted a lonely coyote walking along probably in search of its next meal. There must be some air force base not too far away because we continually saw fighter jets cruising overhead. We were even beginning to wonder if they were looking for some lost hikers (us?) since we saw them so frequently.

Jumping Cholla Cacti with "Babies" Scattered About

Trails at Skyline Park

A lot of the trails here are multi-use and occasionally saw mountain bikers or even riders on horseback. We both decided that the steepness and rocky terrain might be a bit much for our biking skills, so we stayed with hiking. We ended up hiking in this area three of the seven days we were here. We did try a different trailhead for one of the hikes. The development of Verrado is just to the northeast of Buckeye. It is a very fancy area with what are likely very pricey homes. But there was a small parking area and trailhead and fortunately no signs indicating it was only for Verrado residents.

Indian Petroglyphs Now Behind Fence

Lizard Petroglyph

A couple of the hikes we did had spur trails that took you up to the peak of one of the mountains and provided you with a great view. They usually required a fair amount of uphill climbing, but the trails were generally in excellent shape and the views were well worth the effort.

More Cholla Along Trail

Great Distance Views From Above

We spent one afternoon trying out the local disc golf course. It was listed as being in Sundance Park, but after arriving at Sundance Park and not finding any disc golf course, we had to check the website and discovered the location was a couple miles away. This was another one of those places where one sign said no trespassing, residents only while another sign gave the course layout. We opted to ignore the no trespassing sign since nobody else appeared to be around. The course is right next to a water treatment plant and the smell was not too pleasant. The whole course seems to be located in some sort of water retention area so if it has been rainy, you may need hip waders. Being southern Arizona, the landscape is mostly sand and rocks, but each tee is at least made up of crushed stone with signage stating how far the hole is.

We had done pretty well given we hadn't played in some time. Although on one hole, Chris went to take her second shot and somehow her throw went exactly 90 degrees from the intended direction and with such distance that it managed to go up into a large irrigation ditch. As we approached the entry location, we saw the disc had just cleared the lip of the ditch and slid down the concrete side of the ditch. It was now in about 6 feet of water and about 8 feet from the edge. We both agreed it wasn't worth the risk to try to rescue the disc.

We did spend one day heading into Phoenix to do a little site seeing. We went on a Sunday morning so there was very little traffic and not many people. We checked out the state Capitol area where there are many monuments. The anchor from the USS Arizona as well as 15" guns salvaged from both the USS Arizona and USS Missouri are on display here.

Anchor from USS Arizona

One of the 15" Guns

Theater in Downtown Phoenix

The grounds also had monuments to fallen firefighters from Arizona including the 19 lost in 2013 while battling a wildfire near Yarnell Hill Arizona. Another monument for Vietnam War vets and another statute honoring the Navajo Code Talkers from WWII. And a colorful Desert Storm Memorial.

Elaborate Bell

Firefighter Memorial

Desert Storm Memorial

Vietnam Statue

Navajo Code Talker

While wandering around this area of town, we came upon the oddest, and most dangerous, looking tree with large conical spikes all around its trunk. The tree was in bloom with large pink tipped white flowers. A little research and I discovered it is called a silk floss tree. I suspect it is a tree that shouldn't be climbed for obvious reasons. We also drove through the Mesa area where there are hundreds of RV parks wanting to get an idea of what they are like. Some have a hundred or so sites, but others are ginormous with over 2000 RV sites. Not sure this is our kind of camping, at least not yet.

Museum Near Capitol

Spikes on Trunk of Silk Floss Tree

Much of our stay here in Buckeye was to prepare for our trip to Quartzsite Arizona. The small town near the border with California swells from 3000'ish residents to several hundred thousand in January for a big RV show in the desert. We will be trying out our first real boondocking - camping without any utilities except what we have onboard. We are planning on staying 12 nights which will push our holding tank capability beyond what we typically can do. We obviously won't be there alone. From what we have heard, there are RVs for as far as the eye can see. We are planning on camping with a group of over 110 Newmar owners so we at least will be with "friends".  Our next post will tell you how well (or poorly) it went. Wish us luck.